Carsten Winter is Full Professor of Media and Music Management at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (Germany) and has been appointed as a civil servant (status University Professor) for life. He obtained his Dr. phil. from the Leuphana University Lüneburg (2004, Germany) and the Venia Legendi (Habilitation) for Media and Communication Studies from the University of Klagenfurt (Austria, 2007).

His research interests include new conjunctures in music and music-ecosystem strategies, with a focus on new music networks, music cities, agency music festivals, and strategic management. He works across disciplines including history, media, communication, culture, social sciences, and economics, and publishes with a focus on the new strategic challenges.

He is one of the founders and editors of the International Journal of Music Business Research (IJMBR), Board Member of the International Music Business Research Association (IMBRA), and the international springer book series music business research, and of two German book series (a yearbook on music business and music culture and on research in that field (also with springer) and was founding President of the German Gesellschaft für Musikwirtschafts- und Musikkulturforschung e.V. (Association for Music Business and Music Culture Research).

He has published more than 100 articles and 25 books. Over the past five years, Carsten Winter has served his university as Dean (2018-2022) and as Senator (2022-2024) and has made significant contributions to the text "The European Music Ecosystem" within the framework of the EU funding program Music Moves Europe.